Wine bottles should feature health warnings, say MPs

Ministers should introduce health warnings on wine bottles in a bid to combat problem drinking, parliamentarians have said.

Labels on alcohol products should caution about the harmful effects of drinking, the All Parliamentary Party Group on Alcohol Misuse said.

Health warnings are a prominent feature on tobacco products but consumer information provided on alcohol packaging only extends to volume strength, they said in their manifesto for 2015.

The group has called on political parties to commit to 10 recommendations, which they say will help to minimise alcohol-related harm in the UK − including the introduction of health warnings on alcohol products.

Tracey Crouch

The manifesto document states: “Health warnings are a familiar and prominent feature on all tobacco products. Likewise, detailed nutritional labelling is ubiquitous on food products and soft drinks.

“Yet consumer information on alcohol products usually extends no further than the volume strength and unit content.

“In order to inform consumers about balanced risk, every alcohol label should include an evidence-based health warning as well as describing the product’s nutritional calorific and alcohol content.”

“1.2 million people a year are admitted to hospital due to alcohol”

Tracey Crouch

The group also called for the introduction of a mandatory minimum price per alcohol unit, strengthening regulations on alcohol marketing and a reduction of the drink drive limit.

Conservative MP Tracey Crouch, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Alcohol Misuse, said: “The facts and figures of the scale of alcohol misuse in the UK speak for themselves – 1.2 million people a year are admitted to hospital due to alcohol; liver disease in those under 30 has more than doubled over the past 20 years; and the cost of alcohol to the economy totals £21bn.

Related articles:

“Getting political parties to seriously commit to these 10 measures will be a massive step in tackling the huge public health issue that alcohol is,” she said.

Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe, vice-chair of the group, added: “After smoking, alcohol is the second biggest preventable killer. Not only does it cost lives but burdens the NHS and the criminal and justice systems and others with ever increasing costs.

Readers' comments
(1)

I'm tired of this nanny state! We know full well the dangers of excess of whatever evil and if these measures come to pass it won't make one iota of difference! Now excuse me while I open my second bottle of vin rouge this evening.